A Great Thanksgiving Weekend

Michelle has had a hard year. Work has been tough and busy. Plus she has had to ride herd on my bike and I all the way from Vancouver BC to Crescent City CA.

It is NOT easy being a Sherpa for a cyclist, nor is it easy dealing with work stress. I wanted to give her a completely relaxing, no travel Thanksgiving. In fact, I wanted her to have the option to just stay in bed all day if she wanted…

One of our favorite places to go for a quick getaway is the Inn at Langley on Whidbey Island. It is a short Ferry ride over Puget Sound, and all the rooms have a great view.

I keep hoping someday we will see an orca while we are there. But so far….

The plan was simple. We took off from work early afternoon Tuesday and were sitting in line at the ferry terminal in Mukilteo. Leaving early meant we did not run into the major get out-of-town traffic or long ferry lines. We just missed the 2:30 boat, so I had a chance to get out, in the rain, to get some pictures.

With the ferry coming, it was time to head back to the car.

Now there were two things that would play a major impact on the weekend. The first was Michelle picked up an ugly cold! So bad, we cancelled her massage at the spa. Having a huge coughing jag in the middle of massage is just not relaxing. She was bummed, but the extra rest during the weekend would be a good thing.

The other was the weather. It just plain sucked. Cold, wet, and rainy. Now, some may think this was a bad thing. For us though, not at all! We planned for fires in the fireplace, watching the weather outside on the deck, and just hunkering down. Plus, Michelle is a coast kid, and I am cyclist. Weather does NOT scare us!

We got there at 3:30, we checked in, bought a few supplies for the room, and went for dinner. Our favorite place in town is the Prima Bistro. We usually get there for the happy hour menu. Michelle got a bowl of garlic potato soup, the house cold smoked salmon gravlax with grilled rye crostini, mustard crème fraiche, caper-red onion slaw. I went for the fish and chips. With a great Whidbey Island Winery Grenache. We found a bottle of the same at the grocery store and went back to the room for the evening.

I have to share this, the rooms have the most amazing tubs, and there is a view while taking a bath!

The next day, Michelle was feeling a bit better. No where near 100%, but better.

The day started with breakfast, they have the most amazing buffet!

We had the place mostly to ourselves, and took our time. Yep I had seconds!

Now that we were there in the daylight, we could enjoy the view.

We were ready for a walk. The town of Langley is tiny. you can walk every street (all three of them) of the downtown in about 15 minutes. The town is known for having a ton of rabbits. I am sure someone let some pets loose and they kinda, well, bred like rabbits! (Thanksgiving morning I counted 12 of them)

The rabbits aren’t the only wildlife though, and Michelle and I over the years, have gotten good at spotting critters in our travels. Case in point, This Red Breasted Sap Sucker hanging out looking for lunch.

We also got buzzed by two low flying fast-moving bald eagles. Turns out, one was chasing the other and they actually tangled a bit about the water. I wish I would have had the camera ready for that. I was able to get these shots though.

As we walked to lunch later on, I found another reason to love this town. Free use of bikes!

No they are not in the best shape, but the tires were inflated, and they were ready to use. Makes me wonder if this would work everywhere… I had an excellent three layer grilled cheese sandwich (ON RAISONBREAD!) at The Braeburn! (Hey I love grilled cheese when its cold outside.)

After lunch, it was time to stock up. I had made reservations for a restaurant for the next day’s Thanksgiving dinner. I am sure it would have been nice, but honestly, we just wanted to relax in bed, read, play games and snack all day. We hit the store for crackers, cheeses, smoked salmon, bagels, summer sausage, and fruit. There would be another breakfast buffet, but this would allow the snackage!

Wine was a must though! We liked the wine from the night before so much, we made the drive (ok 2 whole miles, if that) to the Whidbey Island Winery. OK, before going in I had to take a picture of this. It’s not a bike, but parts of it used to be.

Inside, the wine was good, and we met Sangio (short for Sangiovese, a red wine) the winery cat.

The photo does NOT show how BIG this cat was! He liked Michelle, but would not let me pet him.

Dave’s wife was outside decorating the front of the store for the Christmas contest. He kept saying he should go help, but now that there were customers (us) he had to man the bar. I will tell you here and now, he poured us a lot more different wines than were on the wine list. Pretty sure he was keeping us there so he could stay warm. (After 35 years of marriage I am assuming he knew what he was doing.)

After we left, we saw she did a great job!

Once again there was dinner, and then back to the room for a fire and relaxation.

Thanksgiving was wet, ugly and dark.

We loved it! We got dressed enough for breakfast, once again I had seconds (maybe thirds) and then we never left the room again. (Ok I left once, for another box of tissues and an ice Mocha for Michelle.) We snacked, sipped wine, kept the fire burning, listened to the rain, and just rested. It was great.

Sadly the next morning, we had to be up at 4:30 to catch the early ferry and get to the office on time. We did get out annual eggnog lattes Starbucks though, it made it more tolerable. After work, I made the run to Home Depot for the Christmas trees. We get a couple a small ones, one for the living-room and one for the kid’s room.

In addition we did some Christmas shopping, lit the lights and hung out with the Manchild.

Even with Michelle still under the weather (sadly she had to cancel her half marathon), and me starting to catch it, it was a great weekend! Hope you enjoyed yours as well!

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3 thoughts on “A Great Thanksgiving Weekend”

Wow, that’s quite an elaborate Thanksgiving for a “no-travel Thanksgiving.” Here I was thinking you were going to stay at home and enjoy a staycation! 😊 Sorry Michelle wasn’t feeling well, but it sounds as though you both made the best of it. 😊